Debt's getting worse, help!

downsizer3

Great news - nice to hear of a success through hard graft - well done you!

headachesrus

What fabulous news, I have a little tear in my eye (of joy) for you.

pugzy

catslovelycats wrote: »

Well done, Pugsy!
Life must feel so different for you now.
How on earth did you manage to pay off so much so quickly? Please tell!

Simply hard work all round - changing jobs for better and higher paid, reducing my outgoings on fuel, shopping and other bits, whilst my wife concentrated on saving for the wedding

Keeping a track on my snowball progress on the what's the cost website and living within my means.

Payday was great satisfaction for me as I'd always get up early and move all the money around to the right accounts and cards so I knew exactly what I had to live on from the outset without getting into trouble.

Far from easy and it's really strained my relationship at times but my wife understands that when I clear all this then we can start a family so she's more than happy to help

This website has literally saved my financial life, now I've just got to continue with it

findingmyownway

Congratulations! I hope you and your new wife enjoy a long and happy future together!

Catslovelycats

Well, again, well done. You've obviously been very disciplined and it's paid off. What a good news story!

pugzy

Update time...:)

Only £397 left to pay on my MBNA card which will be done before April hopefully.

Hit a nice bonus at work for my last 4 months performance which has massively helped things! Got it all stored in a separate account at the moment where I will throw all in one go at MBNA when the £1.7k target is hit (at £1.4k at mo).

Then bam...all my personal debt gone (other than the original student loan that I pay monthly but not concerned about!)!

Moving house in March though which will cost slightly more p/m, but means we will have a full stable base to start a family might mean that I can't pay my usual £300 for next month due to this, which would've cleared this altogether otherwise!

Feeling tough being so close to the technical end

pennypusher

Well done you, a great achievement. Just don't go mad when you move to your new house buying bits and pieces and getting into debt again!!!!

Happytogetdebtfree

Well done its lovely to read stories about people who have come out the other end :-) good luck on the new home :-)

pugzy

So then, it's May, another 3 months since the last update

Well, I still have my MBNA to pay off (around £1.6k), however, this was due to the fact that I had another credit card that I didn't take into consideration when doing my debt-free plan - this was £1400, to which I paid off fully last month :)

Now this leaves the MBNA once again, which together with my wife helping me out over the final hurdle of lending me £300 p/m on top of my £300 p/m, this means that this will have disappeared come July

Yay!!!

Slightly longer than anticipated, but the Tesco credit card 0% APR was ending in April, whereas MBNA is in October!

Also, my personal life has changed once again...

...we moved house as planned
...we're totally settled in
...and a little baby is on it's way :D

Only a few weeks in at mo, but we started trying and got lucky more or less first time! So even though it's early days and we don't want to tempt fate but shouting from the rooftops, I thought I'd share our little bundle of joy with all you MSE'ers we're over the moon!!

So yeah, things always changing in my life at mo, always been for the better though luckily enough!

Thanks for all your support as usual, much appreciated

pugzy

UPDATE TIME!!!!!

I am officially DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :):)

Eventually managed to scrape it all together and have finally got the remainders of what I needed to clear off the £1675 MBNA debt that had been lingering!

Fantastic sense of achievement at the mo, especially as we found out that we are having a little girl, 23 weeks pregnant and very healthy, slightly above size but can't wait!

We've bought plenty of bits so far, I've redecorated the second bedroom for her today, ready for the new furniture and bits to go in over the next few weeks!

Bought my wife her eternity ring last week as it was our first wedding anniversary and the only bit of debt I have left now is £175 from that which will be cleared in 2 weeks.

Was quite emotional for me reading this thread again from start to finish as it all started from when I lost a court case and owed money to a previous employer; now I faced those demons and beat them!

So thank you to everyone who has helped along the route and hopefully I can share my wisdom too with some of the others who are just starting out!